‘How I Met Your Mother’ Series Finale Alternate Ending to Be Included on DVD

Only days out of the box, and 'How I Met Your Mother' series finale controversy continues to rage on the internet, the most recent development of which saw 20th Century Fox TV shutting down a popular fan edit that removed the two-most polarizing twists. Now, it seems fans may get their wish, as the series' DVD and home releases will contain an alternate ending to the "Last Forever" finale that so many fans abhorred.

Via Deadline, it isn't exactly clear what changes will be present for the 'How I Met Your Mother' finale alternate ending, as we know that at least 18 minutes of footage were cut from the final episode. The new ending in question may simply re-edit the existing content to be less jarring (spoiler alert: we saw neither the mother Tracy McConnell's death, nor Ted's six-year mourning before the kids encouraged him to reunited with "Aunt" Robin) though a source described the new edit as a "happy ending."

The clearest finale debates acknowledge that the series had always been structured to reflect the relationship between Ted and Robin, in spite the 'HIMYM' title or Robin's future "Aunt" status, though the unanticipated ninth season endeared fans to Cristin Milioti's Mother and the Barney-Robin relationship to the point that undoing both in the finale seemed especially hard to swallow. Considering that creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas filmed the kids' support for Robin as far back as the second season, it remains to be seen if the available footage could reflect any other outcome than the one we got.

If you didn’t like the finale, I guess that happens. We tried something and it didn’t connect with you. I hope we’re still friends. So anyway, here’s a bit of news: 16 days ago today we were in the HIMYM edit room, trying to decide between two very different endings. We only shot one script, but through edit room magic we had two possible outcomes for the series. We chose the ending we chose and we stand by it. But we loved the other version too. We’re going to include that version on the Complete Series DVD as an alternate finale to How I Met Your Mother.

Well, what do you think? Could the near-universally reviled ending end up redeemed by an alternate outcome to 'How I Met Your Mother?' Could the Mother's death or Ted's return to Robin make any more sense with a different edit? Tell us what you want to see from the 'How I Met Your Mother' alternate DVD ending in the comments!